Want a Porsche, cant drive stick!

[asnigro]

I finally graduated college 2 years ago and am in the market for a Boxster. Sad thing is I have really never learned to drive stick. I figure I cant just walk into my local Porsche dealer and expect them to teach me in a new Porsche. I moved away from everyone I know to take a job so I cant learn from a friend in the area. I dont really want to enroll in some kind of professional driving school or anything like that. Any ideas?

I was thinking that if I show them I am honestly interested in a Porsche, they might teach me with a demo.

[eslai]

Do any rental companies still rent stick-shift econocars? I can't recall, but some of the less famous ones might do that for you.

I doubt you'll get the Porsche dealer to teach you how to drive stick.

[deliriousga]

Originally Posted by eslai

Do any rental companies still rent stick-shift econocars? I can't recall, but some of the less famous ones might do that for you.

I doubt you'll get the Porsche dealer to teach you how to drive stick.

You can rent a stick at most car rental places, but it's usually not an econo-car. The ones available in stick are mostly sports cars, especially convertible ones. Not too pricey. We rented an Eclipse with a stick a few years ago for about $50/day in Miami.

Learning stick isn't difficult if you don't "think" about it. Just get the basic mechanics and then "feel" it and you'll get the hang of it faster. Too much thinking messes you up.

[Brucelee]

Reminds me of when I was teaching my son to drive stick. He was having a terrible time and I was too!

Then, I said, OK.

Close your eyes and just feel what I am about to tell you.

I then closed my eyes and just chatted about what I was feeling as I imagined the process of using the clutch and stick.

From then on, took about 5 minutes.

Of course, you need a very ver large parking lot that is very deserted

Take heart, it is really easy once you get over the first bump or two!

[P986B]

http://www.10w40.com/individual/100186.asp

[eslai]

I drove an automatic for ten years. Learning to drive stick was pretty difficult for me because my left foot was pretty much vestigial.

The way I teach people who have also come from an automatic background is as follows:

Go to a parking lot. Find level ground, where you can sit without your foot on the brake and still not roll away. Put the clutch in, put the car in first.

Now VERY SLOWLY start lifting off the clutch. Eventually you'll feel the engine start to tug at the car. This is the "engagement point" that manual drivers always talk about. It's different in every car and you have to feel it.

On most cars you can ride this engagement point and the car will slowly start to move forward. You can then slowly start lifting your foot off the clutch entirely and bam, you're in first gear.

(mind you, riding engagement point like this is also known as "slipping the clutch" and isn't very good for a car, but at idle engine power, it's not going to kill anything and is certainly going to do less damage than the other kinds of slippage that learners do--mainly burning up the clutch by giving it too much gas while at the engagement point)

At any point doing this process, feel free to push the clutch back in and hit the brakes to stop the car, put it in neutral, catch your breath, etc.

You keep practicing that in the parking lot until it doesn't scare you anymore, then you start practicing giving it gas while letting the clutch out.

Learning like this seems to be a lot less scary than trying to teach people how to "give it enough gas" or what not right off the bat. So far I'm at a 4-for-4 success rate on this technique. Once people get a bit of a feel for the engagement point and then get first gear down they're usually fine for the rest.

Of course, there's a lot more to learn before you can drive sportingly, but that's the start of it all.

[ukchris]

This topic is interesting to me as I grew up in the UK and didn't really know about these *automatics* until I'd been driving for several years. There were actually different driving tests, if you passed in an auto you weren't allowed to drive a manual (stick).

Still, I digress. When I moved to the US 6 years ago we of course got an automatic, I've grown quite accustomed to it and apart from a Jeep for a few years all of our cars have been automatics, including my Boxster.

Let's put that in perspective though, I think in the US a manual is seen as much more "special" than it is elsewhere because of the prevalance of automatics. I wanted a Tiptronic Boxster becuase a lot of my driving would be commuting and yes, I'm a bit lazy. Having said that though it's like no other "automatic" I have ever driven. It can drivle along ant low revs, as mellow as a minivan but in a moment you can give it a poke and all that Porsche excitement is right there waiting for you. Switch to manual mode and it's even more fun!

So, before you decide you need to learn to drive a stick it may be worth taking a spin in a tiptronic, you never know, it may be just the car for you. There are those that'll frown upon the idea but, at the end of the day, we all buy what is right for us and our circumstances.

Just another angle to consider, good luck!

Chris.

[03box]

I would take the time to learn to drive a stick. I think you will enjoy the car more. I agree with Limoncello that automatics have come a long way over the years but for some reason the tip just robs these cars of power. I have a tip and would never own one again. I think if it didn't start off in second gear it would be alot better. That has to be one of the worst ideas engineers at Porsche ever came up with. I know they did it to save gas but this is a sports car not a Corolla!!

[docdyh]

If you want to experience the fun of driving any sports car, you gotta learn to drive and get a stick..I suggest borrowing a neighbors car, and save the wear on your new boxster!

docdyh